The following is a great little montage showing some of the cool vehicles that James Bond has driven over the 24 films in the series.

This got the RedlineNorth Team thinking about some of their favourite vehicles from the series and we’ve decided to profile a few.

Lotus Esprit S1 – The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

First up the Lotus Esprit. Who can forget the underwater scene from the Spy Who Loved Me where James Bond’s white Lotus Esprit converts into submarine mode after driving off a dock into the water. There is also the classic scene with the car ‘driving’ in from the ocean onto a crowded beach – much to the amazement of beach goers.

The Esprit in the film was fully equipped with anti-aircraft missiles, depth chargers and could deploy black ink under water to foil enemy pursuers.

Two Lotus Esprits were loaned to the production company for filming. One was actually turned into a functional submarine. Once the movie was released they became so popular that there was supposedly a three year waiting list to purchase one.

The Esprit S1 (1976) had a 4 cylinder, 2.0L engine that produce 160 hp. Lotus claimed the Esprit could do 0-60 mph in 6.8 seconds and had a top speed of 138 mph (222 km/h).

Aston Martin DB5

First debuting in Gold Finger (1964) but also appearing in Thunderball, GoldenEye, and a small appearance in Tomorrow Never Dies, and Casino Royale, the Aston Martin DB5 is the quintessential Bond vehicle.

The car was equipped with machine guns behind the front indicators, a bullet shield behind the rear window and a revolving licence plate that switched between a number of different plates. It was also capable of deploying a smoke screen and an oil slick to foil unwitting enemies, and of course a little red button that deployed the passenger ejector seat!

The original Goldfinger DB5 with gadgets was sold on October 27, 2010 for $4.1m (£2.6m). For a more reasonable price a scaled down electric model of the Goldfinger DB5 can be had for £48.

AMC Hornet

The American Motors Corporation (AMC) Hornet had its Bond debut in the 1974 film The Man With The Golden Gun. The V8, 175 hp Hornet is best remembered for the corkscrew jump over a river during during a car chase scene. A specially modified version of the car which had a lower stance and larger wheel wells was used by an uncredited British stuntman Loren “Bumps” Willert for the stunt. The jump distance was approximately 16 meters (52 ft) and the jump off speed was 65 kph (40 mph).

The original Hornet is still on display at the National Motor Museum Beaulieu, England.

Up Next….Aston Martin V8 in Part 2.